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Escape to Adventure: Focus
on Arthur E. Becher
March 19, 2011 - January 15, 2012
The Delaware Art Museum
presents Escape to Adventure: Focus on Arthur E. Becher, featuring
40 paintings and drawings from the Museum's celebrated collection of original
illustrations, on view March 19, 2011 - January 15, 2012. The exhibition
features scenes of adventure ranging from historical exploits in exotic
locales, romantic entanglements, and personal dramas stemming from contemporary
crises, such as the sting of discrimination and the shame of unemployment.
In the late 1890s, German émigré Arthur E.
Becher studied privately with artists in Milwaukee before joining Howard
Pyle's prestigious school of illustration in 1902. During his two years
with Pyle, Becher honed the mastery of detail and nuance of expression and
gesture that brought him success as an illustrator. He had a particular
skill for the diversionary and escapist fiction that was a mainstay of the
books and magazines of his time. His illustrations took readers away from
their daily routines and into an array of vicarious dangers, pleasures,
and intrigues. His work reflected the moral messages common in fiction of
the period, often accenting American "can-do" values, though sometimes
also challenging stereotypical assumptions about class and gender. Like
Howard Pyle, and his fellow Pyle students in the exhibition -- including
Stanley Arthurs and Ethel Franklin Betts -- Becher captured the eye without
giving away a story's plot, beguiling readers into a purchase, or even better
for a magazine publisher, a subscription.
One of the highlights of the exhibition is a series of
illustrations for Long Live the King, a story by Mary Roberts Rinehart,
a celebrated and successful American author of mystery stories. Becher portrays
the story's main character, a reluctant young heir to a foreign kingdom,
following him through palace conspiracies, spying, and kidnapping, all set
against the boy's wish to lead a normal life. This series will serve as
inspiration for What's Your Adventure?, an interactive space in the
gallery where children can create and illustrate their own fantastical and
adventurous stories.
A few non-illustration works by Becher will also be on
view, including views of his home in rural New York.
Escape to Adventure: Focus on Arthur E. Becher was organized by the Delaware Art Museum.
Introductory wall text for the exhibition
- In 1883, six year old Arthur Ernst Becher and his family from Freiberg,
Germany, arrived in Milwaukee, a favored destination of German immigrants.
In his early twenties, Becher studied with German émigré
painters who had established studios in Milwaukee after their European
academic training. From their example and teaching, he learned the naturalistic
style that would serve him well as an illustrator. Work for a lithography
company and participation in a sketching club further honed his skills.
In 1902, Becher entered Howard Pyle's school of illustration in Wilmington
as an advanced student. Pyle regularly offered critiques of his work for
the next two years. In 1904, Becher began his career in earnest, and by
1908 he was an established illustrator, working as a free-lance for various
publishers.
-
- Becher joined a thriving publishing industry that offered popular books
and magazines to a rapidly widening readership. Increasing literacy among
Americans created a growing audience for entertaining reading material.
Publishers benefited from faster, easier printing methods. Improvements
in transportation and the postal service brought more books and magazines
to rural areas as well as cities. Most importantly for magazines, manufacturers
began to pay to advertise their products, making many magazines more affordable
for customers and profitable for publishers.
-
- Becher was a versatile artist, accomplished in both vibrant color and
the subtle gradations of black and white. His accuracy of detail, nuance
of gesture and expression, and evocative settings made him ideal as an
illustrator of the diversionary fiction that was a mainstay of the period.
Authors and illustrators of adventure stories could take readers away from
their daily routines and into an array of vicarious dangers, pleasures
and intrigues. Subjects ranged from historical exploits in exotic locales
to romantic intrigues to contemporary crises of family and workplace. Moral
messages abounded, often highlighting American "can-do" values,
though sometimes challenging assumptions about class and gender. Becher's
illustrations, and those by his fellow Pyle students in the exhibition,
reliably captured a reader's eye without giving away a plot.
Object label text for the exhibition
-
- The crown prince, standing alone, so small, so
- appealing, against his magnificent background, was a
- picture to touch the hardest, 1917, from "Long Live the
King," by Mary Roberts Rinehart, Everybody's Magazine, June
1917
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Crayon, watercolor and gouache on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-41
-
- On his eleventh birthday, the Prince must receive a
- delegation of state ministers and important citizens.
- Royal duty prevents him from receiving any gifts.
-
-
- And there at last, Karl cornered Hedwig and demanded speech, 1917,
from "Long Live the King," by Mary Roberts Rinehart, in Everybody's
Magazine, August 1917
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Crayon and gouache on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-73
-
- The reluctant Princess Hedwig of Livonia tries to avoid
- King Karl of Karnia, who is determined to marry her in
- order to form a dynastic link between their kingdoms.
-
-
- Nikky's resistance to search, with the revolver so
- close, was short-lived, 1917, from "Long Live the King,"
by Mary Roberts Rinehart, in Everybody's Magazine, April 1917
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Crayon, watercolor and gouache on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-75
-
-
- Nikky Larisch, a young military man assigned as
- companion and guard to the Prince, engages in some
- espionage with violent results.
-
-
- "Our whole apple cart's gone over," he said.
- "They've got me - to the last dollar.", 1919, from
"The Prairie Mother," by Arthur John Arbuthnott Stringer, in
Pictorial Review, April 1920
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Crayon, watercolor and gouache on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-88
-
- "The Prairie Mother" is the story of a New England socialite
who has left a life of privilege to marry to a Scots-Canadian wheat farmer
in Alberta. Here she learns
- that their livelihood is threatened.
-
-
- The account between us is too long to wait for
- daylight, 1917, from "Stranded in Arcady" by Francis
Lynde, in Scribner's Magazine, June 1917
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Gouache and watercolor on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-93
-
- The plot of "Stranded in Arcady" depends on the elaborate
coincidence that New York writer Donald Prime and Ohio teacher Lucetta
Millington - strangers to each
- other - are kidnapped and abandoned in the Canadian wilderness to prevent
them from inheriting their family
- fortunes. They learn how to survive, fall in love and are eventually
rescued to live happily ever after. In this scene, Donald is enraged at
the man he thinks responsible for their predicament. The story was made
into a movie in 1917.
-
-
- She left off counting and looked at me, and I took
- particular care she should see my arm, 1917, from "The
Love Winds of Port O'Flowers," by Henry
- Oyen, in Everybody's Magazine, February 1918
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Crayon and gouache on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-94
-
- The narrator - sailor Harper Lea - has docked at Port
- O'Flowers in the Pacific islands and strikes a pose to
- ensure that a woman he admires should observe his
- well-developed physique.
-
- Everybody's Magazine was founded by Philadelphia
- merchant John Wanamaker.
-
-
- I heard one of my 'friends' say, "she certainly made
- a good bargain." "Yes, she must have married him
- for his money and even if he is a Jew -", 1914, from "The
Experience of a Jew's Wife," by Anonymous,
- The American Magazine, December 1914
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Crayon and gouache on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-111
-
- This story explores the contempt experienced by a Roman
- Catholic woman who marries a Jewish man. There is no
- happy ending; the narrator's conclusion is a determination
- to stand against prejudice despite having "grown weary of
- constant turmoil and the eternal curling of lips."
-
-
- Herr Amsler, 1911, from "The Recruit," by Ethel Train,
in Redbook, October 1911
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Crayon and gouache on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-121
-
- A German immigrant who has lost his job as violinist in
- an orchestra finds new employment as a laborer. He
- plays his violin for his co-workers, who embrace him and
- his talents until he finds work as a translator at Ellis
- Island.
-
-
- "Is there any end?" she wailed. "What harm can he
- do here on Monaki?" "None," said I., 1919, from
"The Black Beach," by Ralph Stock, in Collier's Weekly,
September 13, 1919
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Crayon and gouache on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-27
-
- In this seafaring story, placed in the waters around Fiji, a
- ship's captain encounters a young woman who is
- "beautiful, in a wild, untrammeled way." When he
- discovers that she is a captive of her father - a fugitive
- from British law - he contrives to free her and, in the end,
- marries her.
-
-
- Untitled, not dated
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Oil on board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-147
-
- This painting may depict a stone wall built by the artist, and mentioned
in a letter by a Becher family member, on the property near his home in
Fishkill, New York.
-
-
- She rose to her feet as if choking! "I will never sell it.
- It is needless to think of it.", 1913, from Merrilie
Dawes, by Frank H. Spearman (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913)
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Oil on canvas
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-108
-
-
- Becher captures the strain between these two characters in
- a drama about the machinations of Wall Street in 1913.
- Here, Merrilie Dawes proudly refuses to sell her Fifth
- Avenue home to save herself from economic ruin. Several
- of Spearman's novels, interwoven with emotional crises,
- were made into movies.
-
-
- "Mr. Adrene," she exclaimed, her eyes still on him,
- but her words for Annie, "seems very worthy of his
- good fortune.", 1913, from Merrilie Dawes,
by Frank H. Spearman (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913)
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Oil on canvas
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-59
-
- The financial stress following several Wall Street panics in the first
decade of the twentieth century was reflected in fiction about the economic
disruption of people's lives. This wealthy group on a yacht will soon suffer
catastrophic financial losses. In the end, however, the title character's
cleverness will bring about her happy marriage as well as the recouping
of her fortune.
-
-
- She thought that Theodore would surely have finished
- his breakfast by this time. But when she came
- downstairs he was at the table., 1916, for Fanny Herself,
by Edna Ferber, 1917 (not published)
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Crayon and gouache on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-96
-
- Since Becher left no records of his arrangements with
- publishers, it is not known why he created this
- fully-finished drawing for Edna Ferber's Fanny Herself.
- The illustration may have been submitted with the hope
- of gaining the assignment. The book was published a
- year later with illustrations by another artist. Fanny
- Herself is the semi-autobiographical chronicle of a Jewish girl growing
up in a small mid-western town.
- Here, Fanny struggles to maintain a fast for religious
- reasons while her brother enjoys his breakfast.
-
-
-
- "Nikky, you are going to take me away, aren't you?",
- 1917, from "Long Live the King," by Mary Roberts Rinehart,
in Everybody's Magazine, September 1917
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Crayon and gouache on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-87
-
- The heroic Nikky Larisch has fallen in love with Princess
- Hedwig of Livonia, who is promised to the king of the
- neighboring nation of Karnia. Feeling herself a pawn,
- she determines to marry the man of her own choice.
-
-
- But the intruder seized a candle from the chancel, and
- held it up before the frightened maiden's eyes,
- 1914, from "Monsieur Bluebeard," Century Magazine,
September 1915
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Oil on canvas
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel M. Kristol, 2002
- DAM 2002-16
-
- Bronson-Howard's story comes from the French folktale about Bluebeard,
a violent nobleman who routinely murdered his wives and abused his serfs.
Here a young woman of his village cowers and claims sanctuary in a church,
as she is menaced by Bluebeard's son, who is
- almost as vicious as his father.
-
-
- Untitled, not dated
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Crayon on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-125
-
- This may have been a portrait sketch or a study for a finished work.
-
-
- Or, sometimes, I would write a little note of thanks,
- especially when it was a married man. The married
- men like to carry a thing like that home and show the
- wife they are appreciated, 1916, from "Your Hidden Powers,"
by Anonymous, The American Magazine, June 1916
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Crayon and gouache on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
- DAM 1971-112
-
- In a period that valued the self-made man, the editors of
- The American Magazine invited stories reporting
- "something in your own business experience worth
- relating to others." This entry relates how the author
- became "a Success." The theme was consistent with the
- self-help approach of Horatio Alger (18321899), whose
- formulaic books about poor boys who rose to
- middle-class respectability through hard work and honesty remained
popular in the early twentieth century.
-
-
- Her foot rocking the cradle, her hands stitching, stitching / Fanny,
the new "American" baby Mary and I, quite filled the little room.,
1916, from "My Mother and I," by Anonymous, in Ladies'
Home Journal, October 1916
- Arthur E. Becher (1877-1960)
-
- Gouache and watercolor on illustration board
- Gift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971